-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
The prices of some aging office towers in places such as New York and Chicago have already fallen by about a quarter as potential buyers struggle to land financing with interest rates rising fast, brokers and lenders say. Defaults are starting to move up from low levels. As with bonds or any other income producing investment, real estate values fall when interest rates go up.
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Downtown is dead unless the tutsoonery can be brought under control.
“As with bonds or any other income producing investment, real estate values fall when interest rates go up.” If people can understand and believe this concept, it should be easy to relate to the analog of property tax rates. As with bonds or any other income producing investment, real estate values fall when PROPERTY TAX RATES go up. Property tax rates are like a variable (fluctuating)interest rate applied annually to full value of the real estate. In Woodstock IL, property tax rates have ranged between 3% and 5 % for a decade, currently 3.6% . Property values are according suppressed.… Read more »
When the tide goes out you’ll find out who’s been swimming naked.